Chapter 1: Introduction to Marketing Research
- Marketing research is the process of gathering information to make better decisions
- Marketing: the American Marketing Association defines marketing as the activity, set of
institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and e...
the philosophy of the marketing concept guides managers’ decisions
the “right” marketing strategy marketing strategy
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Chapter 1: Introduction to Marketing Research
- Marketing research is the process of gathering information to make better decisions
- Marketing: the American Marketing Association defines marketing as the activity, set of
institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings
that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large
o Discover customer needs and wants in order to satisfy their needs and wants… creates
value
Your services
- Crowdsourcing: is the practice of obtaining text here 1
or ideas by asking for assistance from large
groups of people, generally online communities
The Philosophy of the Marketing Concept Guides Managers’ Decisions
- One of the most important philosophies managers have is that which determines how they view
their company’s role in terms of what it provides the market
o Some managers have a philosophy that “we make and sell product X” known as product
orientation
o Another philosophy known as sales orientation is noted as “to be successful we must set
higher sales quotas and sell, sell, sell!”
o Managers who guide their companies by either of these philosophies may guide them
right out of business
- A more effective philosophy is the marketing concept which is a business philosophy that holds
that the key to achieving organizational goals consists of the company being more effective than
competitors in creating, delivering, and communicating customer value to its chose target
markets
The “Right” Marketing Strategy
- Marketing Strategy: consists of selecting a segment of the market as the company’s target
market and designing the proper “mix” of product/service, price, promotion, and distribution
system to meet the wants and needs of the consumers within the target market
What is Marketing Research?
- Marketing research: is the process of designing, gathering, analyzing, and reporting information
that may be used to solve a specific marketing program
- The MRA defines market research as a process used to define the size, location, and/or makeup
of the market for a product or service
- The three uses of marketing research outlined by the AMA:
1. Identifying market opportunities and problems
o Problems are not always easy to identify, managers are more likely to always know the
symptoms (sales are down, market share is failing), but determining the cause of the
symptoms sometimes requires research
o Some marketing research studies are designed to find out what consumer’s problems
are and to assess the suitability of different proposed methods of resolving these
problems
o Opportunities through consumer insights (focus groups: see what needs are being
unmet, fix them, open ended discussions, snowball effect)
2. Generating, refining, and evaluating potential market actions
o Here “actions” can be thought of as strategies, campaigns, programs, or tactics
, o “Actions” can also be thought as strategies, and strategies involve selecting a target
market and designing a market mix to satisfy the wants and needs of that target market
o Market research is conducted in a variety of areas, including:
Determining target markets- what are the needs of a specific segment, are their
needs being met/how well are they being met,
Product research – companies ae constantly looking for new products/services
b/c of the product life cycle and the changing needs of consumers; testing may
begin with idea generation and continues with concept tests that allow firms to
quickly and inexpensively get consumers’ reactions to the concept of a proposed
new product
Pricing research – when a revolutionary product is created, marketers use
research to determine the “value” consumers perceive in the new product;
research is also used to determine how consumers would react to different
pricing tactics such as “BOGO” versus “one-half-off”
Promotion research- used to figure out how effective promotion tactics are for
the advertising, sales force, PR, and promotional offers
Distribution research: looking to find the best channels to get the product to the
consumer
3. Monitoring marketing performances
o To assess performance on some variables, marketing research is often used, sales info by
SKU and type of distribution, for example, is often gathered through tracking data
collected at POS terminals as consumer-packaged goods are scanned in grocery stores,
mass merchandisers, and convenience stores- allowing managers to monitor their
brands’ sales as well as their competitors
4. Improve our understanding of marketing
Improving Marketing as a process
o Basic research: research that is conducted to expand knowledge rather than to solve a
specific problem
o Applied research: research that is conducted to solve specific problems (represents the
vast majority of market research studies)
The Marketing Information System
- MIS: a structure consisting of people, equipment, and procedures to gather, sort, analyze,
evaluate and distribute needed, timely and accurate information to marketing decision makers
- The role of MIS is to determine decision makers’ information needs, acquire the needed
information, and distribute that information to the decision makers in a form and at a time when
they can use it for decision making
- There are four subsystems of the MIS:
1. Internal Reports System
o The system gathers information generated within a firm, including orders, billing,
receivables, inventory levels, stockouts, and so on; in many cases the internal report
system is called the accounting information system
o A good IRS can tell a manager a great deal of information about what has happened in
the past, when information is needed from sources outside the firm, marketing
researchers must call on other MIS components
2. Market Intelligence System
, o Defined as a set of procedures and sources used by managers to obtain everyday
information about pertinent developments in the environment
o The intelligence system focuses on bring in information generated outside the firm; this
includes both informal and formal information-gathering processes
Informal information-gathering: involve activities such as scanning newspapers,
magazines, and trade publications
Formal information-gathering: includes staff members who are assigned the
specific task of looking for anything that seems pertinent to the
company/industry
3. Marketing Decision Support System (DSS)
o Defined as collected data that may be accessed and analyzed using tools and techniques
that assist managers in decision making
o Once companies collect large amounts of information, they store this information in
huge databases that, when accessed with decision-making tools and techniques (such as
break-even analysis, regression models and liner programing), allow companies to ask
“what if” questions
4. Market Research Systems
o The system gathers information not gathered by other MIS and are conducted by a
specific situation facing the company
o Filling this information gap is how marketing research plays a unique role in a firm’s total
information system, by providing information for a specific problem, marketing research
provides information not provided by other components of the MIS
o This is why marketing research studies are often referred to as “ad hoc studies” ad hoc is
Latin for “with respect to a specific purpose”
o Marketing research projects, unlike the other components, are not continuous, they
have a beginning and an end, which is why market research studies are often referred to
as “projects”; they are launched only when there is a justifiable need for information
that is not available from internal reports, intelligence, or the DSS
Recent Trends in MR
- “in-the-moment” research
o Mobile ethnography – recruit a group of customers and ask customers to use mobile
phone to take pics/ videos about products (etc) to tell stories, verbalize attitudes about
specific brands
o Location based surveys
o Social media research
- Big data and data mining
o Text analytics
o Social media “listening”
- Crowdsourcing
Internal Supplier
- Research is supplied by internal departments, committees, or individuals
- Advantages
o Free
o Accessible
o Stagg knows the company; better insights into problems and opportunities
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